Hi ther thank you for all the reviews during my pause! I was struggling for a while to write, but I currently have found some inspiration, so I'll put it to good use for now! Hope you enjoy Chapter 16!
It was late at night on the same day, as almost everybody was asleep. Only a few stragglers were awake, such as Vaggie, who was currently going through training techniques, or Sir Pentious, who was reviewing his notes for the Divine Protector. Only one other person awake during this late hour, and she was glad for the silence.
Velvette was in her allotted room and was doing what she did best: designing. The new clothes she was making for Emily were already coming along nicely, and she should be able to finish them before the young Seraphim would wake up from her coma.
If it were not for the recent headache she was getting recently! It started the night when she took Emily's measurements and sketched some rough designs for a outfit. It started as a slight pinch, but gradually grew worse over time. Last night, she could not even sleep properly, which is why she was currently up designing.
Velvette also started to feel sick, as if she was drained of all her power. While she still could feel exhaustion, she was not used to this level of exhaustion. Heeding this no mind, she continued to design Emily's outfit. This increasingly became a challenge, as she felt an even bigger strain on her than before. Vel stopped after a few minutes, catching her breath.
She couldn't understand why she felt so drained, as this was only supposed to happen when she was losing her power. Her power! A cold shiver ran down her spine. The last time she had posted anything online, was before her heist to steal Vox's Divine Protector. Since then, she did not even once look at her platform.
Velvette got her phone out and opened her Sinstergram account. The only problem was that she was not met with her regular homepage, but instead with a login screen. This immediately put her on edge, as she would never set her account to log out after usage. She typed in her username and password, only for a prerecorded message to start playing.
"My dear Velvette, I knew you would sooner or later try to access your social media platforms, so I have made this special message for you." It was Vox, his face covering the whole device. "You see, it is one thing to disobey me during our private meetings, but to steal from me and bring the tech to the enemy? I would have never thought that you would actually be stupid enough to try that. I guess you can se why I had to cut you off and lock you out of your accounts."
Velvette was just staring at her phone right now. No accounts meant she could no longer promote anything, which meant that she would get weaker by the minute, until she had no power left anymore. Her breathing got quicker and she started to hyperventilate, but quickly calmed down again, as the message was not done yet.
"Now, know that you are dependent on your clout for power. Don't worry, I am not a complete monster, although Val wanted to split your workers between us to teach you a lesson. If you want to get back to us, you will need to bring us something of value to prove you are still loyal to us." Vox said, inspecting his nails.
The video shut itself off, and Velvette started to pace around the room. She though about what she should choose right now. While she held no sympathy for the residents of the hotel, she liked working from here more than from the Vee tower. The worst things she had to prepare herself for in the hotel was when Pentious blew something up again, or with Angel's sour mood after a workday with Valentino.
On the other hand, she worked really fucking hard to build up her brand around the Vee's, and she was not really thrilled on giving that up. While Val might be a giant bastard with a really short temper, and Vox a narcissistic bastard who only thinks about himself and how to fuck over Alastor, they still were very influential and commandeered a big section of the entertainment sector of hell.
Then there was the problem of the tribute she was supposed to bring. The only inventor at the hotel she was able to steal anything from was Sir Pentious, and his designs are not to their interest, hence he was sent here as a spy in the first place. Alastor was off limits, since he did not trust her at all, and she would not be abl to kidnap one of the residents without pissing off a party way stronger than any of the Vee's.
This was the moment it hit her. She was unconscious, but an angel sure as hell should suffice as a tribute, right? Then why was her subconsciousness telling her not to kidnap her and hand her to the Vee's? Velvette screamed in frustration, and much like Val during on of his fits, she cleared her table of all contents.
She looked up into the mirror and was shocked to see her own face losing color. Her normally dark skin tone turned to a sick shade of grey, lips cracked as if she had not drank anything for a long time. Her hair was hanging limply from her head, as if it had no power to keep itself up any longer. It also splintered, and lost its red tint, almost appearing brown.
All in all, she looked like shit. This was the result of her losing part of her powers. She recoiled, before throwing her phone at the mirror, shattering it in the process. Her phone cracked too, dropping on the table beneath the now splintered mirror. Velvette scrambled away from her workspace, until her back hit the frame of her bed. Her breathing was labored, her eyes dilated, just staring blankly ahead. She had no idea what to do, no idea who to turn to.
So Velvette did the only thing she thought would help: she screamed. This scream was infused with her fears of losing power, her anger towards others, and surprisingly to her, her self-loathing for not being strong enough to hold herself together. She pulled her legs close to her body, as if finding comfort and protection in such a position.
A few rooms down, Charlie was currently snuggled up to Vaggie, both sleeping contently. While it was a stressful time indeed, both of them were happy, as their bond only deepened since the apology they gave one another. It also comes to no surprise that they wanted to use every free moment they can get with each other, since the training of the Cannibals and watching over Emily took a lot of time out of their schedule.
Both were sleeping contently, when an ear-shattering scream drove all the way through the hotel, probably waking up every resident. Charlie jumped up, with Vaggie following closely.
"What was that!?" Vaggie spoke up, running out into the hallway, which was filled by more and more residents. By then almost everyone was in the hall except one person.
"Velvette!" Charlie spoke up, as she dashed towards Vels room. She opened the door to find the fashion Sinner almost completely curled up, her body shaking, and some sort of black liquid dropping to the floor beneath her. Charlie approached Velvette slowly, and carefully put a hand on her shoulder, but Velvette recoiled, and moved away from Charlie, panic written all over her face.
"Vel, please let me help you!" Charlie asked again, this time holding out her hand towards Velvette. She looked at Charlies hand and then in her eyes. This was the moment Charlie realized what was happening to Velvette. She once heard from her father about some kind of malediction that only really powerful sinners could develop.
This illness was called Potentia febricitantem, or more commonly known as Power fever. This happened only when a really powerful sinner was loosing power rapidly, resulting in a frenzy which almost always ends in the sinner loosing his mind. There were rare instances of the sinner overcoming this state by themselves, but most of the time, they needed an entity to bind themselves with in order to not loose their mind.
This was what Charlie was currently trying, as she extended her hellish powers as the princess towards Velvette. The crazed expression on Velvette's face subsided a little, a little hope trickling in. Charlie could feel as Velvette's soul slowly bonded with hers, technically making her a slave to Charlie.
As soon as the bonding process was over, Velvettes head slumped forwards, and Charlie panicked, fearing that Vel just had died. Upon closer inspection though, and to Charlies relief, Velvette was just unconscious, and not dead. Charlie picked up the petite fashion designer, and carefully put her down on the bed. She turned around to see Vaggie, Husk and Angel, standing by the door.
"Okay, what the fuck was that?" Vaggie asked, looking at her girlfriend and then past her towards the bed.
"Did… Did she just lose all her influence as an Overlord?" Husk shuddered, remembering how it felt losing all his power back when he made his deal with Alastor.
"Are ya shitting me? I don't think that Vox would cut off his most influential contact over delivering stolen tech." Angel said, not aware of what just happened.
Charlie sighed, before quietly closing the door to Velvettes room behind her. "Husk is right, she was cut off from a massive amount of her power. For now, I bound her soul to mine so she would not loose her mind to the fever."
"Let's just go back to bed again, and sort this out properly in the morning" Husk finally said, to which everyone agreed , as they went to their respective rooms.